The Stand

TAKE A STAND

At times like these at the end of the day it is you and I that are at play

As the winds of March blow the pestilence forth, I feel the need to address the source.

If all don’t heed the urgent call, I feel that many more will fall

In times like these there is a voice to stand in place with  just one choice
To face the foe with gale force

To think that we are alone out here will only serve to stoke our fears

Remember we are all one trust and to survive we all must work together in unity lest we succumb to the insanity

Plug In and Pray

I have never been a religious person, in fact you might say that I am an atheist of sort.

Spirituality on the other hand, when defined as the search for "the sacred," where "the sacred" is broadly defined as that which is set apart from the ordinary and worthy of veneration, is pretty much where I am at.

I worship the gods of nature, science and technology, where science and technology are used to enhance the life and the environment. Much like a cerebral tool kit, they should be employed to make our lives easier, to help us understand universal mysteries and riddles. However, it seems, especially recently, that instead they have turned on us and are becoming increasingly more disruptive and even insidious.

After leaving my home of some eighteen years and packing up all it's technology, which had severed me well for these past decades, I found that upon trying to insert it into my

new space it had become obsolete almost over night!

What happened in those few days of my move from one space to another is still a mystery to me. Could it have been that much like an time traveler from an earlier age, I had become cocooned in a situation that had served me well but who's expiration date had passed me by?

When I think of how many times in a day I find myself confronted by similar situations it makes me angry! How can we move forward if we are always reinventing? And what is the purpose of all this constant change and "upgrading"?

The answer I think is - we cannot!

What it really amounts too, I feel, is greed and money ... If we remain constant in our technology then corporate profits remain status quo. But if we constantly have to reboot than the share holder investments grow.

This is all fine for the privileged few at the top of the food chain but not so good for the rest of us trying to survive or merely hold our ground. Whatever happened to the caring and gentle human spirit? Have we become a world of greedy over achievers?

When money and power become omni important, and everyday sensibility is no longer practiced, I fear that we dangerously close to the eve of destruction.

Wait a minute, there is someone at my door, my new techno service provider has arrived and is performing his magical "tech fix". My Internet is working again, and it looks like all systems are go! Once again I have the power at my finger tips and I feel omnipotent. Maybe I was wrong - my plug and play life is back on track and all is good again. At least for the next nano moment or so ...
 

A Polar Vortex

Today I watched our wildlife gather strong upon our deck. All puffed up with fur and feathers they braved the Arctic nest. The cardinals came with calm and stealth the sparrows came with worry, and as they danced around and looked for morsels, they seemed very much to scurry. But then to the bushes they flew to warm themselves in a hurry.

Now came our squirrels in their furs and fine dress, to beg for some walnuts we keep the self. I wondered how long they could last in this tundra, concerned that the polar vortex might be their conundrum.

But try as I might to bring aid to the day, their courage surpassed my greatest if I may.

What a marvel mother nature has bestowed on her children for a reason, engineering their bodies to work with the season. Without much effort it seemed, you might say, it is knowledge of self that must save the day.

What is it as humans has made us forget all the treasured experience we have gained but regret? Perhaps if we take time to sit and just listen, our strengths might resurface and make our hearts glisten.

Could it be that we are more than just pawns in the game? When will we learn that to try is it's name ...

A year ago last August my partner Chadwick and were lucky enough to visit the palace of Versailles in the countryside outside of Paris. During my first visit to Versailles I stood in total amazement. The wealth and power that came together to build this mind blowing edifice is legendary. A Sun King, a proud but suppressed people, and a decadent upper class living off the efforts and bounty of their subjects.

That first visit was later in October when the multitudes of tourists had retreated to their mundane lives of contemporary work ethic and the palace shone bright and almost pristine in the afternoon light, in the hall of mirrors. We were almost alone in this monument to decadence but you could feel the electricity of another era, an era of unparalleled elegance and cruelty.

My second visit to Versailles was crowded and buzzing with a modern middle class pushing and shoving to see the sites. The mood was much different this time. There was an almost anxious feeling that the crowds had come again to raid and pillage the palace. This time the hall of mirrors reflected not the greedy aristocracy parading in their quaffed and coutured finery, but instead by a much different variety of aristocracy, this time curious and less cultured.

What happens when ultimate art and unparalleled wealth comes together to creat such an icon of the times? Perhaps this could be compared to our society today.

 

Shine on Honey Moon

This June has been a June of joy and happiness. A June like none I have experienced before. A time of much love and many unions. A space in time which exists both for those who see it, and for those who are living it as well.

What is it that happens when universe smiles and sends its solstice energy to us in a burst of such exuberance that the very ground beneath us glows with starlit magic? It is very simply a thing called love.

Of course there are always those moments of sorrow and unhappiness that can creep into our space. Bringing with them much angst and agitation. But we can also refuse them entry by out shining their gloom with the golden "Honey Moon" of this June, and let it shine on forever in a song to the heavens ...

We are the night wind blowing

We are the full moon glowing

We are the sun that is shining

We are forever

Namaste

Hiding Away In Hideaway

It is a brisk and beautiful December morning in east Texas. The solstice sun is shining on the wooded hills and lakes of Hideaway while the silent fields of grass and cattle awaken to a new and longer day.

The dark nights of the last years troubles and sorrows seem to be incapsulated in the stormy moments leading to this silent night. The hopes and fears of a nation were realized in the cries of its children as the festival of lights tries to purge this portentous moment.

But the winter will ware on and take its toll until the sounds of summer are heard in the the trumpets of spring when all will be righted, or wronged, in final moments of faith before the Fall again too soon.

I find myself strangely calm in the protective community of Hideaway with its placid landscape dotted by rolling greens and lazy lawns. But even here there is a unspoken and worried concern of future mayhem ahead if the demons of the past are not taken to term and finally laid to rest.

The Mayans and other civilizations foresaw their demise in the corruption of their society,  I think, and perhaps tried to predict ours. Much as the ancient Greeks and Romans we are perched on the precipice and doomed to extinction unless lessons are learned.

Perhaps the prophecies of apocalyptic revenge ring true most when unspeakable events occur. Perhaps it is in those moments of total terror and unbearable sorrow that the universe tries to correct its course and lead us to the light?

It is now only three days till Christmas, the Christian celebration faith and love. As we all clamor to prepare for the "virgin birth" let us remember it's true meaning. It is not how many packages and presents that we purchase and present but more in the giving of our love and kindness to friends and family. Because in the end there is no better gift than that of self.

Happy Solstice my friends and Merry Christmas Tide ... May it indeed enlighten!

Sunday morning, June 2nd, and a new life at the Loft begins. Funny how distant and far away from my life on Lakewood seems on this somber yet solicitous Sunday morning.

Mountains of memories stand towering around me while carefully unpacked collections begin to reemerge. They seem to say "hello old friend, we have made it to the next great adventure". As I sit and silently chronicle the debris of so many past perfect decades. They are both pleasant and painful pictures, reflections of where and how my life began and how it has transformed into the now.

The task at hand seemed daunting last night as I sat comatose in the midst of the shrapnel of the mid day move sipping my glass of Chardonnay trying to process the aftermath. Then out of the chaos came my cool and ever calming partner Chadwick, with his admirable ability to organize even the most challenging situation.

Salvation now seemed to be at hand, and a well deserved journey into dreamland followed shortly. I like the vitality of our new space. It feels very comfortable and kind. Lofty and rugged yet polished and purposeful too. The embryo of our new adventure is now stirring and the excitement of watching it grow is both exhilarating and auspicious as well.

The days and weeks ahead will be taking us on many a new adventure in our newly claimed neighborhood, and many more challenges await us I'm sure. But, remembering my own words from a former space in time, "we will weather them together, live them in the moment, and make them our own"!